PITTSBURGH—Oriole shortstop Gunnar Henderson nearly made a spectacular game-ending double play with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth but instead, after making a diving stop on Edward Olivares’ grounder up the middle and touching second with his bare hand, Henderson threw wildly to first and the Pittsburgh Pirates scored the tying and winning runs to defeat the Orioles, 3-2, before 20,652 at PNC Park on Sunday.
Ke’Bryan Hayes and Jack Suwinski began the Pirates’ ninth with singles against Yennier Cano (1-1). Connor Joe walked to load the bases with none out. Hayes was forced out at the plate on a good play by first baseman Ryan Mountcastle, who waved Cano off on a grounder by Rowdy Tellez and threw to catcher James McCann for the first out.
Olivares followed with a ground ball up the middle that Henderson caught near second with a diving stop but his hurried throw to first was too wide for Mountcastle to catch, giving the Pirates their second victory in two days on their final at-bat. They won Saturday’s game in the 11th.
Dean Kremer gave the Orioles a strong start, allowing just one unearned run in seven innings, the longest Orioles (5-4) start this season. Again, though, the Orioles offered their starting pitcher little support.
The Orioles scored two runs on six hits, On Saturday, they had just four hits in their 5-4 11-inning loss. It was their first series loss of the season, after they needed two walk-off wins to take two of three from Kansas City.
In the fourth inning, the Orioles scored their only runs against Pirates starter Marco Gonzalez. Adley Rutschman led off with a single. He scored on Mountcastle’s double. Shortstop Oneil Cruz mishandled the relay, enabling Mountcastle to advance to third. He scored on Anthony Santander’s RBI single.
Kremer gave up five hits, struck out six and didn’t walk a batter in his 91 pitches. He was helped by a solid play in the third.
Jared Triolo was thrown out at the plate when he tried to score on Cruz’s double. Centerfielder Cedric Mullins overthrew Henderson on his relay throw, but Jorge Mateo caught the ball and fired a strike to McCann, who tagged out Triolo.
Olivares singled with one out in the fifth, and when Triolo grounded back to Kremer, who was looking to start double play, he threw it past Mateo. However, it appeared as if Mateo, who isn’t used to playing second, could have caught they ball if he had been in better position at second. The throw went into center field, allowing Olivares to reach third. Henry Davis’ sacrifice fly scored Olivares, reducing the Orioles’ lead to 2-1.
After Santander’s single, the Orioles had only Mateo’s two-out double in the fifth until the ninth. Mateo went to third on an error by Joe in right field, but the Orioles couldn’t bring him home.
Pittsburgh retired 11 consecutive Oriole hitters until Mountcastle’s one-out single in the ninth.
Keegan Akin set down the three batters he faced in the eighth.